Grendel - Grenadier

The Grenadier is a enthralling, semi-modular analog synthesizer with an uncommon sequencer, a keypad, a drone mode and crossmodulation between VCO and the resonant formant filter.
External control is possible by CV and Gate signals only which is the reason why the Grenadier has several 3.5mm sockets.

At first Glance the Grenadier looks pretty plain but many functions and routings are switch-selectable which enhances the synth's flexibility vastly.

The VCO has two wave forms (trinagle and square). It has no wide-range tune controls or octave switches (but a fine tune trimmer to align it's tuning to a MIDI/CV interface) and can be played only via CV, the sequencer or the small keypad. A gate signal resets the VCO's waveform to prevent phase cancellation at low frequencies so each note is equally punchy. When the gate is low, the VCO is muted, except when the unit is in DRONE mode.

The small keypad to the left is used as a keybaord for spontaneous play and it's information are available as CV/gate. When SEQ is activated, it is used for programming the sequencer.
This one is a classic analog sequencer with a reduction to four steps but interesting trigger functions. Depending on the setting of the PROG button it either plays eighth notes or it floows an user programmable trigger sequence with up to 32 steps. This "trigger loop" can also fire the envelope. The sequencer can be clocked by the LFO or an external clock.
The LFO has adjustable rate, symmetry and modualtion depth. Depending on the TRIG button setting it can either oscillate freely or be reset by a gate or key press.
The exponential envelope has a decay parameter, bipolar adjustable modualtion depth and can be decoupled from the VCA if desired. The envelope can also modualte oscillator frequency.

The filter is a triple band pass filter, working like a formant filter. XMOD activates a cross-modulation with VCO as modulation source. The filter sounds completely different from filters usually used in synthesizers; it has a strong vocal character and can be overdriven with the DRIVE potentiometer which is useful for dirty acid basslines. In RESO mode one of the three band passes turns into a low pass with high Q and can self-socillate at high Drive settings.
As the Grenadier has an external audio input youcan use the filter individually (mute the VCO by inserting a dead patch cord to the OSC OUT).
Filter parameters: FILTER affects cutoff frequency of all three filters simultaneously, while ALPHA and BETA handles the mid-frequent resonators and is responsible for vocal coloration (see: position in the vocal triangle).

There is no MIDI but analog inputs and outpus for clock, CVs and gates.
The triple bandpass filter widely corresponds to Grendel's Formant filter Euro module and the modulation possibilities of envelope and LFO are derived from the Drone Commander. The child has good genetic heritage! :)